Byzantium or Yunanistan
Mavi Boncuk |
Byzantium (Greek Byzantion), a. small Greek city-state by the straits of Bosporos founded c. 675 AD by Byzas of Megara, and recolonized in the 5th century by the Spartans, like ancient Babylon and Rome, lent its name to an empire (330-1453 AD). The citizens of the city were called Byzantines, but in the 16th century the Frenchman Jerome Wolf applied the term to include all the people of the empire ruled from Byzantium, now renamed Constantinople.
Its inhabitants however called it Basileion ton Romaion, Kingdom of the Romans, and themselves Rhomaioi (Romans). Since 112. AD, when all the free people of the Roman empire were enfranchised and became Roman citizens, the "Byzantines" viewed themselves as Romans and their state as a continuation of the Roman empire. But Western European (Latin, Germanic, Frankish), Russian, Khazarian Hebrew,and other non-Greek sources speak of the "Byzantines" as Greeks, and of their state as Graecia, or "land of the Greeks." Near Eastern people, Armenians, Georgians, and Semites of several nations called the "Byzantines" Yoyn, Yavani or Yunani (lonians) and their empire as Yunastan, Yavan, Yawan (Ionia).
See Also: 3 Byzantium by Demetrios J. Constantelos From Encyclopedia of "HISTORIANS AND HISTORICAL WRITING", Volume I, Editor Kelly Boyd, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, London Chicago.
